it's a life story so there's no climax
by mallory18
Summary: this is what happens when you grow up and move out. kind of. a short glance into a possible logan/veronica future


"What the hell was _that?_" Her voice was bordering on shrill. Logan checked his blind spot and changed lanes, avoiding his wife's glaring stare.

"Calli, what was your favorite part of the park, sweetie?" Logan chirped, turning his attention to the curly haired toddler strapped in the car seat.

"Side!"

"The slide huh? Mine too, Calli-malli." Calli giggled at the use of her nickname.

"I can't believe you're ignoring me... after that!" Veronica hissed, just loud enough for Logan to hear.

"Sure you can." Logan muttered back. Veronica jerked her head, leaning predatorily towards her husband, but he continued before she could respond. "What do you want for dinner tonight, pumpkin?"

"I'm not pumpkin!"

"What? I was sure I was talking to a pumpkin back there!"

Calli giggled. "No Daddy! Calli!"

"What?"

"Calli!!"

"Talli?"

"Calli!"

"Malli?"

"No! Calli!!!" She was screaming now. Veronica turned her head away, tapping her fingers on the passenger side window.

"Don't act like this isn't funny Ronnie."

"You're very funny Loggie." She smiled sweetly. "Happy?"

"With you? Always."

"We are nowhere near being done with this conversation." Logan sighed and nodded, but kept his eyes trained straight ahead as he turned into the next driveway.

"Logan?" They were driving straight under the golden arches, straight into kid heaven. "Honey, _sweetie_... McDonalds? Now? After.."

"Yah! I wanna happy meal!"

"Me too!" Logan cheered, pulling to a stop in the drive up lane.

Veronica fumed silently, her eyes pinned on her husband's face as he cheerfully ordered, as he cheerfully paid, and as he cheerfully whistled as he merged into the oncoming traffic.

She took his fries at the first opportunity, eating them delicately out of his reach, but he just smiled and dumped the extra ketchups on her lap with the added flair of a true Echolls.

She smiled in spite of herself.

------------------------

Two hours later, Calli was bathed, read to and tucked in. Logan sauntered into the living room, grabbing the remote as he collapsed dramatically next to Veronica on the couch.

"Hey you." Veronica greeted, closing her laptop to make room for his feet on her lap. She rubbed them slowly, the pads of her thumbs making wide circular paths over his soles. He groaned lightly.

"Feel good?"

"Mmm.." He threw his head back on the cushion. "Makes me wonder what you're buttering me up for, sugar."

"Awww..." Veronica pouted, moving his feet aside as she climbed up his prone body. She tweaked his nose softly as she laid her head on his chest. "_You_ used to call me sugar-cube."

"Actually, I think it was sugar_puss_."

"Yeah, yeah. You say potato, I say..." The rest of her sentence was blocked by Logan's lips on hers, a gentle and sweet caress.

"Hmmm." Veronica hummed in appreciation. "Now you wanna tell me why you all but pushed me out of the park this afternoon, _sugar_?"

Her voice was gentle, but Logan knew better than to get too comfortable. He knew this script well.

"You were looking a little tired dumpling."

"Tired?" It was more a statement than a question, but Logan answered anyway.

"A little worn around the edges if you will."

"Worn." Veronica repeated. He couldn't tell if she was amused or frustrated. Knowing her, she was probably both. She was always good at multitasking.

"Some might say you were even looking a touch...peak-ed."

"Peak-ed huh?" Logan nodded solemnly.

"It was in the interest of your own health that I.."

"Physically removed me from a public place?" Veronica finished for him.

"Physically removed you from a public place, yes." There was no point fighting about the details. It had taken him years to learn this. Logan knew that wasn't what was upsetting her anyway. If he could distract her long enough, they could go on like this for a long time without really getting to the crux of anything. He nibbled at her ear tenderly, hoping his acquisition had had the desired effect of ending the conversation.

Veronica laughed. "You agreeing with me does not signal the end of this conversation Logan."

"What, I can't kiss my wife?" Logan blinked innocently. Veronica smiled in spite of herself, kissing her husband on the forehead before pulling away.

"Why didn't you do anything?" She asked softly. Logan stood so abruptly, Veronica found herself floundering for balance on the couch cushions. He stalked towards the kitchen, and in the next moment the sounds of cupboards opening and closing echoed through the small apartment.

Veronica followed tentatively. "Logan?"

"What did you want me to do, Veronica?" He snapped the name in three distinct syllables, hissing like he was trying to yell without volume.

"What do you mean, what did I _want_ you to do? A kid's getting the snot beat out of him..."

"He was fine." Logan was slapping sandwich fixings on the counter and was now forcedly searching the refrigerator for...

"Oh, for crying out loud, Logan, the avocado's in the drawer."

"Someone keeps moving things in here." Logan slammed the drawer, shoving the avocado on the cutting board and grabbing a knife in one fluid motion, cutting the green fruit in rhythmic short stabs.

"No one's _ever_ moved the avocado Logan." Veronica sighed in exasperation. "And what the hell do you mean, he was fine?" She air quoted the last part, throwing her fingers around her head for good measure.

"Watch it there princess," Logan pointed the point of the knife in Veronica's direction. "Someone might misread your little gesturing there. In some parts of the world..."

"Oh my god! Would you stop?" Veronica takes a deep breath, and Logan goes back to carefully assembling his snack.

"What I meant, Veronica," Logan pauses to wipe the extra avocado off the edge of the sandwich. "What I meant was..."

Veronica waited in, what she was sure, was a very patient manner. She had learned over the years that it never did any good to try and rush Logan into anything. He was more stubborn than.. well, nothing came in mind to even compare. Logan rubbed at his forehead for a moment, trying to get his words straight in his head.

"Look, it's not that I didn't think it was a shitty thing to do. And if it was someone I knew, or at least a situation that we were somehow _connected_ to...."

He stops, takes a bite from his sandwich and shakes his head with sudden vehemence.

"You still haven't answered my question, by the way."

"What? Your question?"

"Yeah, my question." Logan gathered the condiments, shoving them in the fridge. "What...and, please, be precise now.... What. Exactly. Did. You. Want. Me. To. Do."

"You know I can't just stand by, Logan." She couldn't believe he was turning this on her. "I'm not built that way. You know that!"

"They were parked behind the tree line, he had the kid in the car! Do you really think he would have done what he did if he thought he was being watched? What do they say, huh? About 'behind closed doors'? The guy thought he was being discrete. You don't walk in on something like that."

"So we're all supposed to ignore a _child_ getting _beat_ because of some unwritten rules of _protocol_?"

"No, you're supposed to ignore it while _quietly_ calling in a report to be followed up at a later date. You're not supposed to storm the tree line in the pursuit of self-righteous moral superiority!"

Speech made, Logan grabbed a plate and a bag of chips, nudging by Veronica on the way back to the couch.

"You're gonna lecture _me _about doing things _quietly_?"

"_I'm_ not lecturing you on anything." Logan flipped on the TV, the noise filling the room. "I'm missing my show."

Veronica sighed, glancing behind her to the now cleaned kitchen. If nothing else, Logan had proved a thoughtful husband and good father. He could be obtrusively protective and inanely logical, but he more than made up for it in other ways.

Running her hands through her hair, Veronica crossed the room and settled on the couch, tucking her feet under her husband's legs.

"Your show is reruns of Dancing with the Stars?"

"You hafta admit, Donny's hot."

"Well, I don't know anyone who would disagree with that."

Veronica leaned her head against Logan's shoulder. For a few moments, they watched the show.

"It would have made things worse."

"What?" Veronica sat up, wiping the drool off her cheek. Who knew that ballroom could be so relaxing?

"You, with your tiny fist of justice, sticking your nose where it doesn't belong."

"Logan..."

"Don't get me wrong. _I _think your nose is adorable." He winks and tweaks her nose. "However, violently inclined bastards don't tend to notice those sorts of things. All they notice is their own embarrassment."

Veronica watched him carefully as he brushed the bread crumbs off his front.

"They get embarrassed or irritated or don't get their way.... someone pays for that." He held the sandwich loosely between his hands, his eyes studying the texture between slices of bread. Veronica follows his gaze curiously, trying to read the message there, but before she can, he clears his throat and takes another bite out of the half-eaten snack.

"He should've been better for you." She whispers it and she's not sure he hears her because he's studying that damn sandwich again, rotating it around and around in his hands like it's a compass. She's about to repeat herself, but his response stops her.

"He didn't have any better. Probably a lot worse."

Veronica shakes her head reflexively.

"No, I mean, I won't lie, he's no Keith Mars, but he did try." He says it so earnestly, Veronica finds herself unable to verbally disagree.

"He did." He repeats, more to himself this time. "And then one day....he just...stopped. Trying, I mean. He just stopped trying. Like he knew he couldn't be different."

"Logan..." She needed to get him off this road for a little bit. Sure, she complained now and then that he so rarely opened up about his past, but a part of her didn't really want him going back there either. They had a good thing, him and her. And Calli. She had gone to work, he had taken on the care of an infant, and now a toddler, all with a grace and capability that astounded and floored her. He didn't need his father's shadow reminding him of past insecurities that had long ago been disproven.

"I don't remember the first time he hit me. I remember a time when I was maybe, I dunno, 3? And I remember not being surprised. Seems like people usually have stories, you know, 'the first time' sort of stuff. I don't remember that. But I do remember the first time he wasn't sorry about it."

Veronica took a deep breath. It was taking all her energy to not sigh in exasperation, not because she didn't care, but because it killed her to know what happened to her love. What she couldn't stop then, and what she couldn't make better now. The man had been dead for years now, and even if he wasn't, she still couldn't make this better. It had the power to drive her crazy if she focused on it too long. Wordlessly, she reached out to her husband, embracing him tightly around the shoulders.

"Hey." Logan responded in surprise, breaking out of his reverie. "It's okay, Ronnie. I've got you, haven't I?"

Coughing a laugh through her tears, Veronica managed a laugh.

"Of course." She wiped at her face, grabbing the remote from her husband's unsuspecting hands. At his offended look, Veronica gives him her best pouty face.

"I lied." She paused to turn channels. "I've never thought Donny was that cute."


End file.
